KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 (Bernama) -- The question remains on whether national sprint champion Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi or Shereen Samson Vallabouy will secure the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) wild card slot for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
MAF president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said that the federation still needed to conduct a more in-depth assessment of the matter, and that a decision was expected to be made by July 2.
"Both are eligible in terms of health reports, but we must remember this is a wild card, where we can only select one.
"I am conducting a thorough review. Since this has been discussed openly, we want to make the right choice. Certainly, assessments from others may differ, and even within KOM, there are differing opinions, but we need to consider other aspects, including technical reports," he said at a press conference here today.
He said the Selection Committee was expected to hold another meeting to determine which athlete will carry the national challenge to Paris.
Meanwhile, MAF Technical Coaching Director Robert J Ballard agreed with the federation's decision to approach the selection between Muhammad Azeem and Shereen carefully.
“I support the decision where we need to really take in a lot of information that has been presented (to us) with regard to technical advice, National Sports Council (NSC), performance analysis, Olympic world ranking ... (with) all these data, we need some time to digest.
“None of these numbers were available today as we get closer to the perimeter, the end of June 30. It's a big thing that we have until July 2 to put the (one) name on paper to the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and we owe it to both the athletes that we wait until the last minute so we can decide effectively with the right information,” he said.
For the record, only one of the two athletes based in the United States will make an Olympic debut in Paris 2024 through the wild card ticket that will be decided by MAF after the two athletes failed to qualify directly on merit, namely Muhammad Azeem in the men’s 100m and Shereen in the 400m.
The Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 to Aug 11.
-- BERNAMA
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